उत्तररामचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - संस्कृत मूल एवं हिन्दी व्याख्या)

230 TRANSLATION OF [IV. 5– hearted, indeed!* (Verse 5) Why did you bear, O cruel one, the destruction in that manner of that daughter of yours whose greatness you the fire, the sages, Vasiṣṭha's wife and Gaṅgā, nay even the divine sun, the progenitor of Raghu's race himself, knew, whom you brought forth as the goddess of speech did learning and who herself was of divine rank like any of the preceding? (Behind the curtain) This way, this way, your exalted ladyship and great queen. Janaka—(Looking) Ha! the revered Arundhatī, with Gṛṣṭi showing her the way. (rising up) But whom could he mean by great queen? (observing) Ah, ah! How is it that she is my dear friend Kausalyā, the lawfully wedded wife of the great king Daśaratha? Who could believe that it was she? (Verse 6) She was in the house of Daśaratha like the goddess of prosperity. Or rather she was the goddess of prosperity herself, what need of the particle of comparison? Alas! that very lady has become as it were a changed being by the power of fate, a strange being of grief all compact, alas! the reverse of destiny! (Verse 7) The sight of that very person, who was formerly an embodied feast to my eyes, has now become intolerable like brine to a wound. (Then enter Arundhatī, Kausalyā and Chamberlain) Arundhatī—I tell thee the command of the spiritual guide of thy family addressed to thee was this—thou must come in person and see Videha's king—it was for this reason that I was sent, then why this great hesitation at every step? Kanchuki—Queen! fortify thyself. I request thee to comply with the injunction of the revered Vasiṣṭha. Kausalyā—The necessity of beholding the lord of Mithilā at such a time makes all my sorrows break out again at once. I cannot compose my heart, the main roots of which are cracking. Arundhatī—What doubt is there about this? (Verse 8) The sorrows of mortals, produced by separation from relations, though continually felt, become at the sight of some very dear person intolerable, and surge around us as if with a thousand streams. *In the text this sentence has by oversight been printed above verse 4 instead of below it.